


Shatterproof

by sailec



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Destroy Ending, Gen, M/M, Mass Effect Holiday Special 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8978638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sailec/pseuds/sailec
Summary: Shepard still can’t piece all the memories of regaining consciousness together; a jumbled blur of confusion, waking up to the view of a white ceiling and trying to make out where he was and what had happened.
Maybe he should be getting used to it by now. At least this time he didn’t have to roll out of bed and head straight for his gun.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Mass Effect Holiday Special day 1 prompt, 'Decorations'.

"Shepard," Liara says as she and Wrex enter the room – well, as much of a ’room’ as the thin walls pieced together in a secret location where Shepard is staying can be called (and Shepard’s told he has one of the _nicer_ arrangements).

"Hey, you two, finally. Was starting to think you had forgotten about me." Shepard sits up a little straighter, trying his best not to wince as pain flares up his side where his broken ribs object to the movement.

"Yeah, we’ve all been terribly busy celebrating that other guy who saved the galaxy from being wiped out," Wrex says, and Shepard would like to think himself fluent enough in krogan by now to pick up the smile in his voice even when Wrex sounds the most sarcastic, so he lets himself laugh, ignoring the responding _Seriously, man?_ from his ribs.

"It is good to see you again." Liara walks over to Shepard’s bed, putting down the brown paper bag in her hands on the floor to carefully cup his face, fingers placed below where the bandage is wrapped around his head, and kisses his forehead. "I mean, to see you properly this time."

Shepard still can’t piece all the memories of regaining consciousness together; a jumbled blur of confusion, waking up to the view of a white ceiling and trying to make out where he was and what had happened. Maybe he should be getting used to it by now. At least this time he didn’t have to roll out of bed and head straight for his gun.

Instead he remembers Kaidan being there, Shepard’s heart mirroring the look of relief on Kaidan’s face as he blinked his eyes open at him, all attempts of assessing the situation to figure out how much danger he was in falling away. Kaidan, sitting at Shepard’s side, holding his hand, leaning forward to stroke his cheek and tell him, no, Shepard was not dead, smiling when he added, _"but if your idea of the afterlife would be us sitting together holding hands I’m flattered."_

Everyone had wanted to pop in and cry a little – or a lot; Shepard made sure to look away when James started mumbling about how they shouldn’t keep patients in a place with so many dust particles in the air while furiously wiping at his eyes – and Shepard felt like tearing up too, just at the sight of them, everyone gathered here even though he knew – _knew_ – there had to be so many more important places for them to be, so many more people to help. Admiral Hackett stepped forward from where the crowd was huddled together in the small room and started a passionate speech of Shepard’s heroic actions, which he caught the first four words of before he passed out cold again.

It was a beautiful one, for those who were awake to hear it, Kaidan informed him when he woke up again half an hour later. Everyone else had been ushered outside and a visiting schedule had been set up, with strict orders from Shepard’s nurse of no more than two visitors a day, for the first week at least.

Apparently there was a line to come see him, now.

He might not have heard Hackett’s speech in person, but in the past couple of days and from what people have told him, it’s been easy enough to piece together what everyone thinks – he’s a hero, their savior, did what no one else could do and all the reapers are gone. Dead as dead can be. There will be a huge ceremony once Shepard is feeling well enough for it.

Shepard has no idea how to respond to any of it, since he has no memory of it happening.

Last thing he knows before waking up he was fighting his way through reaper forces in London – it was the start of October when they headed to earth, and now Kaidan’s told him Christmas is in two days. He’s had to process bigger time jumps before, but it doesn’t make it any less weird. He can’t stop wondering if soon he’s going to wake up a second time, where all of this is a dream and the impossible wasn’t actually done, and his friends aren’t here, taking turns to visit him in his hospital room.

"Don’t tell me you’re going to kiss me too," Shepard says as Wrex walks closer while Liara sits down in the chair next to his bed.

"You bet your pale backside I am." Wrex places one hand on Shepard’s shoulder first and a loud peck on the top of his head next, making Shepard’s eyes go wide. This all being a dream is becoming more and more plausible with each second. "You look like hell, by the way. I know you’ve died countless of times by now and all, but still."

Face full of scars, body full of dark bruises even after the time he’s spent in a coma, three fingers on his right hand wrapped in bandage, broken ribs, his left leg gone below the knee – Shepard hasn’t asked for a mirror, but he doesn’t really need to look in one to know there’s truth to Wrex’s statement.

Things could be better.

But they could also be a lot worse, and he has to cling to that.

"Twice, Wrex. _Twice_. Not ‘countless’, unless you’re a very small child. And that’s only if you include this time, and as far as I know no one’s actually said anything about me being dead when they found me."

"To everyone’s great confusion." Liara says, holding up her hands when they both look at her. "No–not that I’m saying I wouldn’t rather have them confused for the rest of your life instead of you suddenly starting to follow the general rules of how bodies should work."

"Jus’ saying," Wrex sits down in the chair opposite Liara and leans back, "some of us wear the facial scars and red eyes better than others."

"Yeah, whaddaya know?" Shepard touches the indented skin on his cheek, the curved pattern of his scars yet again a visible reminder of what he’s mostly made of nowadays, ever since the first Normandy blew up. "One moment you think your cybernetic implants are fully healed, then all it takes is a major blast and suddenly your eyes are back to glowing again."

"Gotta ask – they do that in the dark too?"

"That’s… classified."

Wrex starts laughing. "I knew it."

"Kaidan’s still sleeping in here so I figured it can’t be that bad, alright?"

"Eh, no one’s ever picked a human for the way they look, that’s for sure. Except you with Alenko, maybe. But the pretty ones are few and far between."

"…Did you just call Kaidan pretty?"

Wrex shrugs. "For a human."

Liara hides a smile behind the back of her hand but Shepard squints his eyes at Wrex, not willing to let this go. "I’ll have you know I’m considered plenty attractive among my kind, Wrex."

"I dunno, Shepard. With that mop of hair on your head?"

"Shut up," he mumbles and touches above the bandage where his buzzcut has grown far longer than he’s had it since he was a teenager – before the attack on Mindoir, before moving to earth, before joining the Alliance.

"I for one like your hair," Liara says. "It suits you. Though I _have_ always found it a bit strange, if I am being honest."

"They’re all a little bit strange no matter what they do – hair or no."

"That is true."

"Are you two done yet?"

"You need it," Wrex says and Shepard rolls his eyes in a _…Well, okay, yeah_ , and smiles, because.

Well.

Okay, yeah.

"Hey Liara," he says, "remember that time you were in love with me?"

" _So_ , speaking of scars and you being a medical mystery," Liara says and becomes focused on brushing something off of her white clothes. "Have the doctors said anything new at all since you first woke up? The information was pretty lacking, to say the least."

"Don’t try to act like you haven’t already made Kaidan tell you everything we know," Shepard says, because if there is one thing he knows she loves and won’t sit silent and wait for, it’s information.

"I’ll admit I was going to try it last time I was here, but he was too busy making sure we were all clear on the fact that we’re not allowed to bust you out, no matter what you say about it."

"He did not do that."

"It’s true," Wrex says as Liara nods. "Was only looking at Garrus and Grunt through the whole thing though, to be fair."

"…Okay, yeah, I can see it now." Shepard laughs before shaking his head. "Still, I – I can’t tell you anything you haven’t heard, Liara." No one who has examined him can come up with a proper explanation as to how he’s still breathing, considering the state of the rest of the place where they found him was in, where he’s been told there had been a huge explosion. "Yesterday I had one doctor come in and stare back and forth between me and their clipboard for five minutes before they just walked out again."

"Hm." Liara purses her lips, looking thoughtful. "It does make you wonder, doesn’t it? If whatever Cerberus – "

"Shepard has been beating the odds way before Cerberus got his hands on him," Wrex says and points at him. "Mark my words, this guy’s part krogan. Just as I always suspected."

"Does that mean I will be able to grow my leg back out?"

"And here I thought you'd be enjoying being forced to lie down in a bed with nothing to do."

"Yeah," Shepard says, "you know me so well, Wrex."

"Maybe that’s why the reapers came here to begin with. One big ploy to finally get you to stay still."

"So Kaidan _has_ been giving you speeches – "

"I have to say," Liara cuts in, "if they wanted Shepard to stay still they have gone about it in a _very_  strange way these past couple of years."

"Still don't get why I'm not dead." Shepard looks away, at his fingers wrapped up in white, down where his left calf used to be, the sheets now lying flat under his knee. "I mean I'm thankful, but. I don't get it."

"Guess what?" Wrex says, ignoring him, and maybe the reason Shepard brought it up here, among them, is because he knows Wrex has never been one for taking pity. "We got a present for you."

"Oh! Right." Liara bends down to pick up the paper bag.

"You do?"

"I – yes." She places the bag in Shepard's lap and smiles. "We found it while we were still back in London, looking through buildings for survivors. Or well, Wrex found it."

"Liara insisted on keeping it."

“Well, it is December in your earth months and I remember when Ashley taught us about your winter festivities. Plus, this room could do with some decorations – and flowers are hard to come by these day.”

Shepard opens the bag, sticking his left hand inside to pull out whatever is in it.

"It’s…" He looks at the snowglobe in his palm, the size of a tennisball with its fragile glass intact, protecting the tiny cottage and pine trees inside it.

"There was nothing but rubble where we found it," Liara says, "but there it was. It made us think of you. We figured you could... take care of it. Give it a new home. Where it can sit safely and just do nothing for a while."

"Subtle, guys," Shepard mumbles, but still finds himself needing to look away, blinking fast until he has his breathing under control and is certain the tears are securely at bay. He shakes the snowglobe, watching in silence as the snow falls; peacefully and naturally, not stopping to question why it's still able to do so. "...Thank you," he says and carefully puts it on the desk next to his bed, next to the hand sanitizer and glass of water, on top of the book Kaidan's reading to him at night.

His body is breathing, earth is safe, a lot of his friends are still alive, and his glass hasn't broken.

As much of a frustrating mystery it might be, it’s the greatest start to what comes next he could have imagined.


End file.
